Improving and Protecting our NHS

I worked with the late Dr Peter Crouch, Clinical Chair of Swindon’s Clinical Commissioning Group and my colleague, Justin Tomlinson, for a change to the funding formula and for a dedicated Radiotherapy Unit here in Swindon.

Following this work, NHS England announced that it would amend the funding formula.

Under the old system, Swindon CCG would have received an annual increase of £5-6 million a year. However, under the new allocation formula, annual growth for Swindon instead ranges between £7million and £12million per annum. When the cumulative impact of the introduction of the new allocation formula is taken into consideration, instead of receiving an increase of £30 million between 2016 and 2021, the CCG will now receive an increase of around £44 million.

Overall, the change driven by the new formula represents an increase in cumulative investment in the Swindon CCG healthcare economy of £45 million over five years, with investment up from £82 million to £127 million.

At the same time as the changes to the funding formula were announced, the proposed Radiotherapy Unit at the Great Western Hospital was finally given the green light.

For too long, cancer patients from Swindon have suffered the pain & discomfort of having to travel hundreds of miles every year in round-trips to Bristol & Oxford for treatment. Securing this new facility, right at the heart of the GWH, and delivering a five-year cumulative investment of £127 million means that patients in Swindon will benefit from both of these significant improvements.